A look at Lightning’s Black Mage outfit in Lightning Returns By Erren Van Duine on July 26, 2013 at 3:39 PM

In Lightning Returns, players will have the ability to customize sole heroine Lightning nearly anyway they please – costumes and all. Bundled up into what the game calls Schema – Lightning’s battle abilities will change depending on the type of weapon shield or outfit she carries. One of the newest outfits to be revealed is a spin on the classic Black Mage garb – which you can see below. Using this outfit, Lightning will be able to use a variety of magics including Thundara and Aerora. Lightning can also use a wide-range ability called Area Sweep to take out more than one enemy at once.

In battle Lightning can target and destroy specific sections of an enemy. Through this enemies can be weakened, and additional post-battle awards can be unlocked. Also on show is Counterblow, Lightning’s new counter-attack move. Though powerful, the move drains much of the ATB meter, so it must be used sparingly!

Lightning is looking great in that pic, but something about the outfit just doesn’t do it for me. Maybe it’s the weird-looking purple tights. Hopefully we can re-color them to black or something.

ultromega

Ooh, I love how the costume looks in the header.

Storm

Actually, I read that you can blend magics, ex: Thundara + Aerora.

Ryuukishi

So does each costume only have four abilities associated with it, or does it have lots of abilities and you choose a loadout of four?

Wercal

You have a large selection of spells and skills to choose from, yet you can only assign four of them to each schema. They show you a glimpse of how to do so in the Japan Expo demo (right after the player changes Lightning’s outfit)

CauseICan

It’s definitely the tights, and the feathers… What’s up with the feathers?

Ryuukishi

Thanks, I’ll have to watch the demo again and note that part.

M. Ziab

It’s missing the pyntie het that black mages wear.

ultromega

Hehe. I happen to like the feathers. 🙂

Can we talk about that stance in the 2nd picture though? She’s.. sticking out her pelvis. Was the screenshot taken during a victory pose animation?

M. Ziab

I think so. She IS smiling, so she must be happy about winning a battle.

I like the outfit, personally. I just don’t see how this is a ‘black mage’ outfit. There’s not enough “black” in it. And I know, some black mages outfits in FFIX had not a lot of black. But then again, there’s a lot of things that you would not usually see in a black mage outfit.. Those goggles for example (or are they?). The feathers. The tights. Well she’s carrying a sword and a shield, which I don’t really mind as it’s just an outfit.. (Plus, she carried a wand in the upper screenshot so I guess we have options)

I liked Lulu’s outfit from FFX, I hope we get that as an optional outfit as well.

Sapientia

I’m not digging the outfit, but I’ll probably use it for its magical abilities (no shit xD) at least. I want to see the White Mage outfit so bad!

vagrant_soul

Cute outfit but too much purple! Thank goodness you can change the colors.

Twilight Odin

I read the same thing, too.

LightningF

You can see her use her ‘wand’ in the JP Expo demo.

When she casts thunder etc. in her Black Mage outfit, she does a different animation then when she casts it in her Equilibrium Garb.

Prima

*______* The goggles <3

Mihel

“Lightning’s battle abilities will change depending on the type of weapon shield or outfit she carries”
So her abilities are tied to her equipment and her stats are tied to her outfit. I guess with Staffs she cannot perform melee attacks, and perhaps with swords she cannot access some magic skills.

I like she shield and the sword but I’m not digging the outfit.
I think the goggles aren’t part of the costume because we’ve seen them in other outfits as well. Probably is just an accessory that grants accuracy boosts or something.

Mihel

Feathers looked cool in Agni’s outfit.

Billy Jackson

I’m loving that yellow and purple!! The shield and sword seem a little out of place, yet appropriate given her character. But it seems as if something is missing… A hat, maybe? But that would look bad. I think that her character just might not be dark enough to be a Black Mage. 🙁

I’m sure I’ll be proved wrong once we see her in action.

Maybe if she had black/darker hair this would look better?

Panos Dek

I like the outfit but it doesn’t quite ressemble to the black mage outfit I’m used to see! I was expecting something darker to be honest. It’s a very nice style though! 🙂

Mihel

I too thought the sword and the shield, while looking cool, don’t really belong to this outfit.
I believe hats and headgear are not part of the outfit themselves but are equippable as accessories.

Guest

that’s not really a sword, if I’m not mistaken. It’s a sort of mace/cane thing.